An 18-year-old Atlanta man is fighting for his life after being shot in the head late Wednesday night on Eason Street NW, just off Joseph E. Boone Boulevard in Northwest Atlanta, and his mother is now publicly pleading for anyone with information to contact police. DeQuaviyon Whatley was found at the scene and rushed to a hospital, where he remains in critical condition, according to his mother.
Atlanta police were called to the block late Wednesday night, and crime scene technicians recovered at least 17 bullet casings scattered in the street outside a house, according to WSB-TV. Witnesses told investigators they heard a barrage of gunfire before finding Whatley wounded. An officer at the scene performed life-saving measures on him before medics transported him to the hospital, per the same report.
Whatley's mother said Thursday that her son remains in a coma as he continues fighting for his life. In a public appeal shared on Atlanta News First, she asked anyone with information about the shooting to come forward and contact police.
Investigators Still Searching for a Motive
Atlanta police are still working to determine what sparked the gunfire and what led to the violence, the WSB-TV report notes. Channel 2 reporter Darryn Moore arrived at the Eason Street scene early Thursday morning as crime scene technicians combed the block for evidence. It remains unclear whether the more than a dozen recovered casings point to multiple shooters or a single weapon fired repeatedly, a detail investigators have not yet clarified.
Eason Street NW falls within the jurisdiction of the Atlanta Police Department's Zone 1 precinct, headquartered at 2315 Donald Lee Hollowell Highway NW and responsible for northwest Atlanta neighborhoods, according to the department's own precinct directory. Anyone with information can also contact Crime Stoppers of Greater Atlanta, which offers rewards of up to $5,000 for anonymous tips leading to an arrest and indictment in felony cases, per the Atlanta Police Foundation. If a shooter is identified and charged, Georgia law classifies aggravated assault with a firearm as a felony punishable by one to 20 years in state prison, according to Georgia Code § 16-5-21.
Northwest Atlanta's Recent String of Shootings
Whatley's shooting is the latest in a series of violent incidents clustered near Joseph E. Boone Boulevard and Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard in recent weeks. Just two days earlier, on August 4, a 26-year-old man was fatally shot in an apartment complex parking lot on nearby Joseph E. Boone Boulevard after at least 20 shots were fired, as Hoodline previously reported. On July 23, a separate shooting along the 600 block of Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard left multiple people shot, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage of that incident.
Research from the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform found that young adults between 18 and 34 years old make up the overwhelming majority of both fatal and nonfatal shooting victims in Atlanta, placing Whatley within the city's primary at-risk age group. That pattern persists even as citywide numbers trend downward: mid-year public safety reports from the Atlanta Police Department showed a 21% decrease in shooting incidents and a 30% reduction in homicides compared to the previous year, according to the Atlanta Police Foundation.
A Mixed Record on Solving Violent Crime
Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum announced in January that the department achieved a 77.55% homicide clearance rate in 2025, exceeding the national average clearance rate of 61.4%, according to the Atlanta Police Department. Whether that same success can be applied to nonfatal shootings like the one that left Whatley hospitalized remains to be seen, as investigators continue working to determine what sparked the gunfire on Eason Street. For now, his mother's plea stands as the most urgent call for answers: someone in the community may know what happened, and police are asking them to speak up.
